Portable SNES - Supaboy Now In Stock and Shipping From GameGavel Store

[GameGavel]

The wait is over. Now is your chance to get your hands on the hottest new retro gadget, the portable SNES Supaboy!

Free shipping in the USA!

http://www.gamegavel.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000575241

[miner2049er]

Nice.

I wouldn't use it but I want one anyway. Too bad it will be region locked.

Are you gonna review one?

[GameGavel]

Ya, I will be reviewing one. I think it runs nearly all snes & super famicom games.


Nice.

I wouldn't use it but I want one anyway. Too bad it will be region locked.

Are you gonna review one?

[random_dave]

I have one on order (it will be a little longer for me to get it, as it has to get to the UK) but I brought a stack of games all regions and FX chips. SA-1, DSPs types into work today so that I'm ready as soon as it arrives to give it a hammering

AFAIK they are region free as they are SNOAC style so presumably they are the same sort of compatibilty as the snesclones.

If not, it's not a great biggie to me as i've been trying to move my snes collection from PAL to NTSC anyway as I get paranoid that as i like to run everything in 60Hz some of the PAL games go a bit wrong due to reprogramming to optimise for 50Hz, so by just using NTSC stuff i can be sure that it's running correctly (it's usually things like Mario Kart and Starwing with the added co-processors that go wrong)

*EDIT* Mines not on order through GG, I've had my eyes on them for a while and ordered it from another importer ages ago

[Leathco]

I own an fc 16 go, but some games aren't compatible. Mike, is the supaboy compatible with fx chip games like Mario RPG, yoshis island, or starfox?

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

[GameGavel]

I am picking some up today so I will try those games out and report back. I will have a video review up by days end.


I own an fc 16 go, but some games aren't compatible. Mike, is the supaboy compatible with fx chip games like Mario RPG, yoshis island, or starfox?

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk

[random_dave]

I own an fc 16 go, but some games aren't compatible. Mike, is the supaboy compatible with fx chip games like Mario RPG, yoshis island, or starfox?

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk


Mario RPG http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=A7Fpt-XuNCE#t=555s (and mario kart a bit earlier on)

Street Fighter Alpha II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoBAjzX3kRY&feature=related (that's the one that used a chip (SA-1?) for compressing data, i think)

I'm sure I've seen one running Star Fox, but i can't find it. IMO having a good portable Star Fox will make it worth the money alone

[tcv]

Ya, I will be reviewing one. I think it runs nearly all snes & super famicom games.

My recollection of the SNES "region locking" was a physically incompatibility between Super Famicom and Super NES carts. All one had to do was physically modify the cartridge port.

So, when you say it will run all the games, does that mean it will take either style cart?

[GameGavel]

It does say it will play both snes and super fami games so I am guessing they both fit. Actually, I am picking some up tomorrow, not today so will have a review up this weekend sometime.

[random_dave]

My recollection of the SNES "region locking" was a physically incompatibility between Super Famicom and Super NES carts. All one had to do was physically modify the cartridge port.

Indeed the only difference in the 2 NTSC regions was the cart shape, they both sent the same signals to the F431A or F411 chip, whereas the PAL version had a different signal requirement.
*EDIT* and in the youtube links i posted above, one uses exclusivly NTSC-J super fami carts (including the Super GameBoy 2) and the others are with NTSC-U carts, so that is fine. PAL is the only thing that may be worth concern.

This can be circumvented on original hardware by grounding a 5v pin, or vice versa depending on the hardware.

But, the way I understood it with the 'new' reproduction or clone consoles is that the implementation of the hardware, which isn't a 1:1 copy of the electronics circumvents the requirement for the check in such a way that it isn't used at all

Where this falls down, is in some games that check the video speed, for example Super Metroid has to boot at it's correct speed to a point, and then can be switched to the desired speed once past the point that 'checks'

MarioRPG is another unique case as the SA-1 chip in it added another layer of hardware check that scuppered a lot of the import adapters, and even the consoles now that have switched mods to disable the snes F431A or F411 chip are known to have a lot of difficulty with the game, although I'm lucky enough that my console seems happy to run the NTSC-US game on my PAL-E console

[miner2049er]

The SNES console itself in the UK had a slot shaped so that the squarer NTSC games wouldn't fit in. Only the rounded PAL carts would fit in.

Once you cut the plastic away a little you still had to mod it with a little bit of soldering, so I would see the same issues with this device, but if it says it will run both then I guess they must have the hardware in place and they must surely fit in the slot as well.

The only issues would be the carts with extra hardware in, in which case the unit may or not play those well, only a test will reveal that.

[tcv]

All will be revealed soon....

[GameGavel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ_za2q35lU

[random_dave]

watched the video last night, appreciated Mr. California, any chance of seeing Star Fox ingame? there looked like there may have been a little brief corruption in the intro so it would be interesting to see how that fares in-game.

With any luck I'll have mine towards the end of the week and i've got a few things lined up to test on it, PAL, NTSC-U, NTSC-J, Super FX, DSP-1, ST010, GB-Z80, SA-1 and a special bit of hardware i'm leaving for a surprise.
My main concern with PAL compatibility is later games that tested that they were run at 50hz, as presumably they'll be 60 in the Supaboy, so I'll have to remember what i have that checks and give them a whirl on it too (Super Metroid i think and SaGa2, amongst others)

[Dhalamar]

I wonder if it handles FX2 heavy games like Doom and Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[random_dave]

AFAIK the superFX2 is just a refinement of the FX1 that allows it to run at a higher clock speed, but is functionally the same, so that shouldn't be an issue

SF Alpha 2 actually uses a different custom chip that's designed to handle the decompression algorithms used on the sprite/animation data, but I'm sure I've seen it running on the Supaboy on the videos that came out of peoples hands on's at E3

[random_dave]

BAH! the importer just emailed me to say they're still struggling to get the stock over, and probably won't be able to for another 3 weeks at best

So-Cal, how much would you estimate you would charge to ship one to the U.K. ? If it's reasonable I'll cancel my current order and get one off your good self

[GameGavel]

Actually, Hyperkin just got their shipment in finally late Tuesday. I actually just had them ship my orders out yesterday, 2-weeks late because they had shipping issues of some sort. So maybe your importer will finally be getting them. They could only alot me 50 units so that is all I can get at this time and they have all sold out. Good luck :)


BAH! the importer just emailed me to say they're still struggling to get the stock over, and probably won't be able to for another 3 weeks at best

So-Cal, how much would you estimate you would charge to ship one to the U.K. ? If it's reasonable I'll cancel my current order and get one off your good self

[random_dave]

Hmmm, in that case I guess I'll sit tight and be patient, if i try and arrange an alternative now it won't arrive before christmas, and I'd not be back in the office until after new year, so that's a few weeks of enforced waiting anyway.

It's just a shame as I'm really looking forward to it, but on the plus side I'm not in any way short of handheld games to play in the meantime.

I suppose it's a good sign that products like this have enough demand to outstrip supply as it will hopefully mean future similar products will be viewed as viable to bring to market

Just imagine how good a modern portable pcengine/tg16 would be, the cards form factor is made for it and the PCE GT/LT and TGExpress are just too pricey and not good enough quality to be used for heavy gaming these days

[random_dave]

I just got my despatch email, so hopefully it'll arrive at work roughly when I go back, I am excite

**Update**
Typical, they've sent it as a next day delivery, so it's had a failed delivery today as this week is the only week of the year that the office isn't open 24/7

what are the odds! It's almost as if it was never meant to be

[random_dave]

Got it! Here's a quick size comparison against other things lying around my desk
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zygAyocQ32A/TwL_DhCQrvI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/iACqR266ttw/s640/DSC_0055.JPG

I don't think it has enough juice to power the floppy drive on my "R4" cart though ;-)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q4VhS1jEAwg/TwL-9fDkTTI/AAAAAAAAAQs/9NGs5N73nyM/s640/DSC_0056.JPG

[tomtom2play]

Got it! Here's a quick size comparison against other things lying around my desk
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zygAyocQ32A/TwL_DhCQrvI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/iACqR266ttw/s640/DSC_0055.JPG

I don't think it has enough juice to power the floppy drive on my "R4" cart though ;-)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q4VhS1jEAwg/TwL-9fDkTTI/AAAAAAAAAQs/9NGs5N73nyM/s640/DSC_0056.JPG
How is it?

[random_dave]

It's certainly not perfect, but it's more than adequate for getting some snes love on the go, or at work if i can't be bothered to haul my snes there